The scandal continues

New allegations against the News of the World suggest the newspaper may have targeted the families o

It seems there are no depths to which the News of the World will not sink. The news that the parents of Soham murder victims, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, were contacted by the police has raised suspicions that they, too, have been victims of the hacking scandal.

And if that weren't bad enough, it has now emerged that the bereaved relatives of the 7/7 terrorist attacks may also have been targeted.

Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in the Edgware Road blast, confirmed that was contacted by officers on Tuesday after his details were discovered on a list as part of the police inquiry into hacking claims. He has called the revelations "extraordinarily distressing", and condemned the practices of journalists seeking an exclusive story:

"The thought that somebody may have been listening to [us] just looking for a cheap headline is just horredous."

On Tuesday, new evidence came to light of payments made to senior officers of the Metropolitan Police by the News of the World between 2003 and 2007, the period in which Andy Coulson served as the paper's editor. Coulson admitted as much in 2003.

Calls for Rebekah Brooks's resignation have intensified over the new revelations, with David Cameron and Ed Milliband also weighing in to discredit their former chum -- who they seemed to have no problem cosying up to at Rupert Murdoch's summer party in June.

Emanuelle Degli Esposti is the editor and founder of The Arab Review, an online journal covering arts and culture in the Arab world. She also works as a freelance journalist specialising in the politics of the Middle East.